Mile Marker
by NervousParanoia
Summary: The boys encounter a mysterious creature while driving through Nebraska.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: Mile Marker  
**Warnings**: none  
**Author's Notes**: DISCLAIMERS... The characters don't belong to me and neither do the actors, but I sure as hell wish they did.

**CHAPTER ONE**

It's two o'clock in the morning and it's Dean's turn to drive. The music is turned down, so Sam can get some sleep, but not so low so that Dean can't hear his Lynard Skynyrd. He thumps his fingers lightly on the steering wheel along to the beat as he drives towards nowhere in particular. He glances down at the fuel gauge and takes a mental note that they will need to get gas at the next station that comes along. Then, he looks over at his brother as a grunt escapes from Sam's lips, his face contorted in pain or anguish. He hates to do it, but he knows he has to wake him up and reaches out to do so.

Luckily, or maybe not, Sam wakes himself up from this dream. His eyes shifts uneasily from one side of the car to the other. It is pitch black outside the car and he surmises that it must be the middle of the night because the highway is deserted.

"You all right?" Dean asks knowing full well he isn't but hoping they wouldn't have to talk about it. Sam doesn't realize how hard it is for Dean to put on a brave face for his little brother.

"Where are we?" A tinge of panic enveloping the words.

"Uh, a couple miles past Odessa, Nebraska."

"What mile are we on?"

Dean takes his eyes off the road to give his brother a weird look, raises his eyebrows and says, "I don't know."

"Dean, I need to know what mile we're on," Sam implores with his eyes fixed on the road. Suddenly he spots a mile marker. His arm swings out and hits Dean's chest, "Stop!"

_Her breathing is erratic as she runs through the woods and her feet barely touch the dew stamped ground below. The creature, or whatever it is, follows behind her, close enough to keep her adrenaline up, but far enough behind to give her the impression that she has a chance to get away. Tears stream down her face and mingle with the dirt as she takes another hurried glance behind her. Suddenly her foot catches a raised tree root and she stumbles. A garbled scream escapes from her lips as she hits the forest's floor. Grasping at the ground, she slips and slides on the damp grass and mud, but is finally able to lift herself back up and continues to run._

_Tree branches whip around her head like spiny fingers, slashing at her face and arms. She looks ahead and sees the moonlight reflect on something. A guardrail. Of course, the highway cuts through this area. Charged with a fresh burst of adrenaline, she throws herself through the tree line and into the road. _

A figure runs out from the wooded area next to the road. Her foot catches in a depression in the ground and she falls hard. Taking a hurried glance behind her, she lifts herself off of the ground and runs full force into the road.

Dean grips the wheel and swerves to avoid hitting her. The Impala spins around and screeches to a halt facing the opposite direction. Throwing the door open, Sam runs toward the figure. He reaches her just in time to catch her as she collapses into a heap of relief from total exhaustion.

"Dean! Gun!" Still shell-shocked from the near accident, Dean hears his brother yell in the distance. His hunter's instincts kick in and he reaches over to grab the gun from the glove compartment.

Rushing out of the car, he sees Sam kneeling on the ground cradling a bloodied woman in his arms, protecting her from the creature looming over them. It was at least seven feet tall and its tattered clothing, covered in blood and dirt, barely covered its sickly green, decomposing flesh.

Aiming the gun, Dean takes a shot at the creature. It lets out a guttural cry as the bullet pierces its left arm. Grasping its injured limb, it flees into the wood from where it came. Dean begins to pursue.

"Dean, wait, don't!" Sam yells as he gets back on his feet. "We'll deal with it later. Right now we need to get her to the hospital." Hugging the woman's body to him closely, her limbs hanging like a ragdoll and her chest struggling to rise with each breath, he makes his way back to the car.

Dean takes another look into the woods and turns to follow Sam, trying to make sense of what just happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

Dean hates hospitals. They're too clean. The air is too sterile. Something about the musty air that permeates the rundown motel rooms they stay in on the road, comforts him. Hospitals just make him nervous. It could just be that the only time he ever goes to one is because he's about to die.

He looks over at Sam, who is sitting in the chair next to him. He's covered in dirt and blood stains from the woman. Hunched over, elbows on his knees, he stares at his hands, oblivious to Dean and his surroundings.

"Come on," Dean clamps his hand down on Sam's shoulder. "Let's get you cleaned up."

Sam jumps with the contact, yet only looks up at Dean, his eyes glazed over and empty, and then quickly looks away.

"Come on," he says, a little more gently. _What's wrong with him? We see worse stuff than this every day. _

Dean sits on the counter, while Sam washes his hands. "Are you ok, man?" Dean asks.

Sam clears his throat as he dries his hands. "Yeah, it's just..."

"What?"

"It's just weird. It's just really weird."

"What? You had a vision. Then, it came true. It's not like it hasn't happened before."

"Yeah, but we don't know her. She isn't connected to us," Sam looks down at his hands again as he says this.

"Well, obviously she is, otherwise why would you dream about her? Huh? Look, we'll it figure out. Worse case scenario we have to go hunt some tall, fugly, decomposing beast. And decomposing green is my favorite color," Dean hops down from the counter. "So what do you say we go talk to this hot chick. Hell, I'll even give you dibs. After all, you did dream about her first."

"You're such an ass," Sam replies as he walks out of the bathroom.

"One of my many talents," is Dean's glib response.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

"You think they'll just let us in to see her?" Sam whispers.

"Dude, we found her," Dean whispers back.

"She's not a stray dog," Sam hisses.

"Give me a minute," Dean replies simply. He gets up and walks over to the officer standing guard outside the girl's room. Sam watches from his chair across the hall. Dean flashes his trademark grin and gestures toward Sam a couple times and than flashes a couple laminated cards, probably made at some generic copy store in some generic town.

Exactly a minute later, he waves Sam over and wiggles his eyebrows.

"What did you tell him?" Sam asks Dean.

"I am the master and one day I will share my secrets with you, young grasshopper, but today is not that day."

_You're such an ass_, Sam thinks as he walks into the hospital room.

She looks so small. They had cleaned the blood and dirt off of her and bandaged the cuts and scrapes. Her dark, olive skin stands out from the stark white sheets. Her eyes are closed and she looks like she's at peace, a harsh contrast from a few hours ago.

"Maybe we should come back later," Sam whispers to Dean, pulling him so their backs face her.

"So, you must be my knights in shining armor."

Dean and Sam whip around. Her eyes are still closed, but a slight grin is creeping onto her face.

Dean clears his throat and answers her in his most suave voice, "Why, yes, I believe we are."

Sam just rolls his eyes. Always has to be the charmer, can't even hang it up for two minutes. "I'm Sam and this is my brother, Dean. We were just driving by when you bolted from the trees. Gave us real scare. We were just wondering if you would tell us what happened."

She opens her eyes and looks up at Sam, "I already told the cops."

"Yeah, I'm sure you did. But, how about you tell us what really happened. I have a feeling you left out the seven-foot tall beast with decomposing flesh in your account to the cops. Am I right?" Dean countered.

She pauses a beat, and then her smirk returns. "A seven-foot tall beast with decomposing flesh? Really? I'd say he was more like seven and a half feet tall. But what do I know?" She folds her arms on her stomach. "Why don't you take a seat, stay awhile? Sam, is it? And Dean?"

They nod as they sit down in the chairs by the bed.

"I was driving along the road . . . What day is it?"

"The third," Sam answers.

"It's almost been a week then. I was driving down the road when I noticed this huge thing blocking my path. I swerved and ran off into the ditch. I must have hit my head because the next thing I know I'm lying in some old ramshackle barn in the middle of nowhere."

"Did it try to do anything to you?" Dean asks, leaning toward her.

"Not unless I tried to get out. Which I did a couple of times. There were bones all over the floor. I'm pretty sure they were human," she answers. " So, what are you two?"

"Reporters," they answer in unison.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

"So, what it is?" The question isn't directed at anyone in particular, the air could answer it for all Sam cares.

"Well, lets see. It's a big ass decomposing, ugly ass 'Sasquatch' like creature that carted off some poor girl. I don't care _what_ it is, I just want to know how to kill it."

"We need to know _what_ is it, so we can find out _how_ to kill it," Sam says.

"Says you," Dean says as he clicks on the next link in the list of search results. "Eureka! I think I've got it."

"What?"

"This," Dean points to a word on the screen: _Aigypan_. "I'm not even going to try and say it. Says here it's a 'Sasquatch' like creature," He takes a moment to give Sam his patent 'I told you so' look, "that is prone to carrying off women, allegedly for breeding purposes. Who's the genius now, bitch?"

Sam scrunches up his eyebrows and gives Dean his patent 'what have you been smoking' look and continues reading the article. "It also says they are reported as inhabiting the remote jungles of Venezuela. Last time I checked Venezuela was pretty far away from Nebraska."

"Maybe it snuck on a boat and hitched a ride here. Gotta tighten those immigration laws. Or maybe someone got it for a pet when it was a baby and then it got too big and they just didn't want it anymore."

"Yeah, that must be it."

"Well, college boy, you tell me what it is? The description fits and I can't find anything else to explain it, so unless you have a better idea, shut your cake hole and help me find out what kills it."

"What crawled up your shorts?"

"Nothing. Something's just not right about this gig."

"How so?" Sam asks.

"Why would a gigantic monster from Venezuela take some college chick from Nebraska off to go breed with her?"

"The fact that it's supposed to live in Venezuela doesn't strike you as strange, but the fact that it wants to bang some chick in Nebraska does?"

"I don't know. The way she described what happened. She just didn't seem scared enough. Then, there's the amount of blood she lost. I mean, did you look at her? She barely had a scratch on her after they cleaned her up. Not to mention your vision about her. Something's not right."


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER FIVE**

The wind picks up the pieces of old take-out boxes and past due bills that litter the alleyway behind the hospital and twirls them around above the cracked asphalt. As though given directions from an unseen force the wind suddenly ceases its ballet of sorts.

A figure creeps out one of the back exit doors and moves down the alleyway towards the dumpsters. It removes its hood and then pull a few assorted items, including a knife and chalice, from the folds of its baggy hoodie. Grabbing the knife from its place on the ground, the figure makes a steady, deep slice across the length of its thin, olive-toned thigh, catching the blood in the chalice. A pointy finger moves around in the blood.

"Are you ready, father?"

A car ambles along a stretch of deserted highway. The woman driving, oblivious to the peril she will soon be subjected to, switches the radio station and turns up the volume as Metallica's "Some Kind of Monster" begins playing.

The sky is pitch black and the trees on the side of the road seem to move of their own volition instead of with the wind.

The woman sings along to the song and beats on the steering wheel unaware of the large statue-like being blocking the road a mile ahead. As she draws nearer, it lets out a guttural yell and begins closing the distance between it and her approaching vehicle.

It takes the woman a half second to realize she is about to collide with something in the road. Veering to right, she runs her car off the road into the ditch, out of view of any cars that might happen to drive along the stretch of highway.

The monstrous creature approaches the vehicle and pulls the woman out of the car. Her scream and pleas for help echo in the night, but remain unanswered.

The monster pushes the car back up on the road and smears some of his victim's blood on the door.

A voice permeates its mind. A message.

"Are you ready, father?"

'_I'm ready, daughter. Make sure the boys know of this attack_,' it responds


End file.
